Sharon Begely’s ‘Case for Chutes and Ladders’ (Newsweek, Oct 22, 2007) shows how the educational neuroscience marching band is growing not so much in knowledge but in territorial gain, competition, noise, and power.

If I may please toot my kazoo at the the symphony of academic din: this global network of teachers is reaching kids with a new awareness of the play. Developing brains have needs and requirements that old-school models of testing and accountability ignore and neglect.

Brain science is not so much about creating the perfect reading program based on science of the visual cortex. It is more about watching children exult and engage because their teachers know how to sidestep rigidity and control with artifice, playfulness, and intelligence, and changing a culture highly resistant to change in their own classrooms.